Extensions of Raw

I’ve seen some docs and data out there that exhibit confusion over the file extension for an RDM file, describing it as .rdm.vmdk or -rdm.vmdk or other variations. A quick ls from a VM with a RDM shows:

there is a normal descriptor file with a .vmdk extension and the actual mapping file with a -rdmp.vmdk nomenclature.

du shows the mapping file as being empty (which it is being a brand new RDM map)

The VMDK descriptor however contains pretty much what you’d expect – the who what where of the virtual drive:

More interesting is the datastore browser is RDM aware and (unlike for regular VMDKs) shows the mapping file and descriptor as separate files.